Squad news

ÍNSUA REACHES THE GOLD

18 Jul 2012Pablo Ínsua is the fourth player belonging to Deportivo La Coruña that reaches the glory with the youth teams of Spain; the centre back was a reserve player for Spain in the Euro U-19 played in Estonia during the past week.

On Sunday, U-19 Spain defeated U-19 Greece (1-0) in the final of the UEFA Euro U-19 championship disputed in Tallinn (Estonia). It’s the second straight title in this division for Spain and the sixth since 2002. Fabril’s central defender Pablo Ínsua was part of the team, though he only played four minutes in the whole elite round (2-0 against Estonia).

And it’s that for coach Julen Lopetegui the main alternatives for the centre of the defense were Jonás Ramalho (Athletic Bilbao) and Derik Osede (Real Madrid). Still, the Arzua-born player should be happy as he’s just the fourth player in the history of Deportivo that wins a title with a youth team of Spain.

The other three are David Rochela, Adrian López and Rubén Pérez. Rochela can be considered as the most successful one as he also won a U-19 UEFA European title (2007) besides ending as the runners-up with Spain in the FIFA World Cup disputed in the same year (in South Korea). He also played a U-19 UEFA final elite tournament (2009), always performing as a starter.

Adrian and Rubén Pérez aren’t players formed at Abegondo, but were at Depor when U-21 Spain were crowned as the Champions in the UEFA Euro U-21 tournament disputed between the years 2009 and 2011; Adrian even won the Adidas Golden Boot award of the tournament after scoring five goals. It happened just days before signing for Atletico Madrid.

The Asturian striker also played a U-20 World Cup when he was at Deportivo (2007), Spain was eliminated in quarterfinals and one of his team mates was Antonio Barragán, the former left-back defender of Deportivo that now belongs to Valencia CF. Two years ago Uxio Marcos played the UEFA U-17 elite round tournament.

It’s hard to find a Depor’s player at Spain’s youth teams during big international tournaments disputed in past decades, actually there were only five between the years 1977 and 2001. The first one was keeper Francisco Buyo, who disputed a U-20 World Cup in 1977. The second was defender Francisco Javier Rodriguez, who was part of the Spanish U-20 team that played the FIFA World Cup in 1981.

In 1991, keeper Alex Sanchez Garcia was also chosen in order to participate in the FIFA U-17 World Cup; Álex never played with the first team of Depor as Liaño was the owner of the spot and later went to Atletico B. Switzerland-born striker José Luis Deus played also a U-20 World Cup wearing the Spanish shirt (1997). He had the chance to play a couple of games at Depor’s first team and also played with Spain´s U-18 & U-21 squads.

Striker Xose Manuel Fernández was another case of a player that participated in an important youth tournament and that later was unable to make a prolific career at Primera. He played the 2001 FIFA U-17 World Cup and later ended playing at Tercera clubs.

There were other Depor’s players that performed for the youth teams of Spain, but never playing in big tournaments; among them were Luis Cascallar, Emilio Viqueira, Toni Andrade, Juan Diego Bugarin, Marcos Vales, Julio Álvarez or Dani Mallo. Neither they were able to find the road to Depor’s first team

Now the hopes are in the new generations formed at Abegondo; Uxio should be the next one heading into the U-19 squad; behind him winger Javi Fernandez ‘Bicho’ and playmaker Julio Delgado are pushing in order to enter into the U-17 team after been participating with the U-16 squad. They not only seek the glory with Spain, but also to have a better luck in their professional career compared to their predecessors.